Today is the second day of World Osprey Week and although we’re still waiting for the first Osprey to arrive at the Manton Bay nest, we did have one new arrival today – 03(97)’s mate returned to the Site B nest. We’ll have more on that exciting news, including some photos, tomorrow.

Although we’re still waiting for new data to come in from 30(05), we have an update on two of the American WOW birds. Ian MacLeod from the Squam Lakes Natural Science Center reports that Donovan is taking a little break in southern Georgia. He left the coast of Florida a little after 10am on the 21st and headed north and by 3pm had traveled 117km over the border into Georgia and had settled on a small pond just east of Spence Airport near Moultrie in Colquitt County. He has been there ever since. He did the same thing last year – found a little rural pond and rested for a couple days. He’s now about 1,700km (1,078 miles) for his nest. Iain stopped by his nest yesterday and it is in great shape after the winter . . . but it’s still very wintry there (as you can see in the photo below!). Belle, meanwhile is making her way through Cuba. You can see the latest position of both birds on our interactive WOW map.

Donovan’s nest in New Hampshire is still snow-covered. Good job he is taking a break from his migration in Georgia!

Donovan’s nest in New Hampshire is still snow-covered!

Back at Rutland Water we now have a second view of the Manton Bay nest on the webcam page. The second camera is not such good quality as the main nest camera (and also doesn’t have IR for night viewing) but we think it provides a lovely view of Manton Bay. Click here to see what you think…

Aside from the satellite tracking data and webcam, we have a series of teaching resources that are free for all participating WOW schools to download. There are now 43 different lesson plans – covering all subjects – for both primary and secondary schools. The latest lesson plans, written by Jackie and Pete Murray, include activities based around food chains and webs for Science; ‘Multicultural Ospreys’ which could be used for History, Social Science, General Studies or Religious Studies; and even a food science lesson. To see a full list of the teaching resources, click here. Basically there is a lesson plan for just about any subject! To sign your school up for World Osprey Week – giving you free access to these fantastic resources – click here. You can click on the thumbnail images below for a small sample of the materials on offer.

Later this week four schools (from UK, Spain, Italy and Gambia) are getting together for a Skype conference call so that they can talk about the work they’ve been doing for WOW. Myself and Iain MacLeod will also be taking part and, thanks to the Urdaibai Bird Center, we’ll be broadcasting the Skype call live on the website. To watch it, simply visit this page.

A previous Skype call at the Urdaibai Bird Center. You can watch this week’s Skype live on the website